COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (July 3, 2019)
In honor of America’s birthday, Ashley Carroll ensured that the U.S. Flag would wave and the Star-Spangled Banner would echo from the range in Lonato, Italy as she was crowned World Champion in Women’s Trap.
Led by Carroll, Team USA's Trap shooting contingent got the fireworks started early on the eve of America's Independence Day as part of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships. Wednesday’s results included celebrating a World Champion, seven other top-15 individual results, a gold-medal team sweep in Women’s Trap, a bronze-medal performance in Junior Men’s Trap, and three Finalists.
Leading this charge was Carroll (Solvang, California) with the second-best Qualification score of 120/125, which led her into the Finals of a World Championship once again after a sixth-place result in 2017. This time Trap supremacy would be hers and it is something she’s been building toward, with this her seventh World Championships appearance already as a 24-year-old. She beat China’s Xiaojing Wang by one-target in the Final, missing just two of her last 10 targets while Wang dropped three. Wang has finished runner-up for the second consecutive year at Worlds.
In winning the world title, Carroll becomes the first U.S. women to earn a World Championship medal, along with the world title, since Cindy Gentry in 1999. It’s the first Trap medal for Team USA at a World Championship, men or women, since bronze by Bret Erickson in 2006.
She would help lead the U.S. contingent to the top spot of the podium in the team match as well, aided by the great all-around shooting from all three U.S. team members. The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s (USAMU) Rachel Tozier (Liberty, Missouri) and Kayle Browning (Wooster, Arkansas) had the same score of 116, which proved to be just one-target shy of potential Finals inclusion. On countback, Tozier would finish ninth while Browning would settle for 13th.
Two U.S. Junior Women’s Trap competitors earned a spot in the Finals as well Wednesday with Carey Garrison (Crossville, Tennessee) and Nicole Manhave (Longview, Texas) finishing fifth and sixth respectively. The 14-year-old Garrison improves from 10th to fifth in her second straight World Championships appearance. Garrison would have to bow out after three consecutive misses after Manhave was eliminated in sixth. Manhave was absolutely clutch in her first international contest and the results of her and Garrison as well as a strong 16th-place finish by Faith Pendergrass (Valley Springs, California) led them to the top team performance.
Steven Brown (Anchorage, Alaska) was not intimidated by the environment of competing in his first overseas match and would finish eighth with a score of 117, just one target back of a possible Finals berth. His Anchorage cohort Grayson Davey shot 114 to finish 15th and Roe Reynolds (Quitman, Arkansas) came through with a 113 to finish 19th. Three results inside the top-19 led this trio to a team bronze medal.
Derek Haldeman (USAMU/Sunbury, Ohio) was the top Men’s Trap Qualifier for Team USA, connecting on 119 targets and finishing 13th overall. Brian Burrows (Fallbrook, California) shot 114 to finish 69th while Caleb Lindsey (Spring Hill, Tennessee) shot 112 to finish 88th.
World Championship action continues on the Fourth of July with the Mixed Team Trap event where Carroll will team with Haldeman to attempt to go for more World Champs hardware. The Mixed Team event will followed by the start of Men’s Skeet and Junior Women’s Skeet on Friday.
WORLD CHAMP RESULTS: http://bit.ly/2RTsIDh